question/thoughts about this week's MotW

[mickeym]

I got to thinking about the whole shape-shifter thing as it was presented to us tonight: that there is an "Alpha" shifter, a king, if you will, from whence all other shifters come. (Did anyone else have flashbacks to XF's "Small Potatoes" ep?) So King Shifter goes out, impregnates women, and then presumably retrieves the baby to raise it.

Except, in two of the other three shifter eps we've had -- specifically, "Skin" and "Monster Movie" -- the shifters talked about themselves a bit to Sam and/or Dean; talked about being a freak and a monster within their family, reviled and scorned, made to feel as an outcast. I got the sense that THOSE shifters were a result of mutated DNA, born into a "normal" family.

So, are there two types of shifters, then? The kind that happen by accident and the kind that are bred on purpose (not unlike vampires, in a way)? Or did the writers screw with established canon/lore?

Thoughts? Input? Kim-needs-to-go-to-bed?

Comments

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

well in terms of genetics it would be possible that shapeshifting originated from one being, but then doesn't always show up - like red hair.

Also i don;t think it was the Alpha doing the impregnating, it was the other sshifter that Sam killed in the motel.

[iontas.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can be bred both ways. From regular shifters and from the Alpha. Somehow the apocalypse has jacked up everything. Perhaps it loosed all the alpha versions of the monsters? I hope that Cas can clear things up a bit.

[britomart-is.livejournal.com]

Shhhh, we do not speak of continuity. Things don't need to make sense, geez.

[sangre-fria.livejournal.com]

This may just be me trying to hand-wave and avoid retconning, but I think this could make sense.

Like you pointed out, in the past shifters have mentioned being freaks in their own families. If we couple this with Sam's stated fact that shifters aren't known to snatch babies - and this falling into step with the main theme of this season being "The monsters are doing things they've never done before!" - maybe it was as simple as that.

Big Daddy Shifter goes around impersonating husbands to create the next generation of shifters, but in the past he never bothered to come back for them. It would kind of be like the lore behind changelings. So the child would grow up surrounded by a "normal family" and would feel like a total freak once the shifting started to manifest, and no one would be the wiser to the fact that the kid is only half-human.

And I guess all these half-human shifters running around would be the ones encountering hunters, and so the hunter lore would assume that their abilities are what should be expected from "normal" shifters. But by virtue of being half-human, they wouldn't be as strong as their full-blooded father, which would explain why the Alpha's general badassery is such a surprise to the hunters.

....Maybe?

[hunters-retreat.livejournal.com]

My take on the pregnancy thing was that for some reason the other shifters were never claimed by the alpha. Mom and Dad never knew they had a supernatural child so when the baby started mutating... they freaked.

I'm not sure it explains everything, but I'm willing to roll with that thought :P

[linda3m.livejournal.com]

I'm going with the theory that the kids were half shifter, but for some reason the shifter parent never came to collect. I suppose shifters get hung up at the office too.

Also, The niftily handled all continuity issues for the season by saying that monsters are not doing normal monster stuff.

[electricmonk333.livejournal.com]

Totally thought about Small Potatoes the minute Sam had that conversation with the husband!

[mdlaw.livejournal.com]

Those others could be recessive genes or shifters having unprotected sex and then moving on never knowing the left something behind. Whoa, run on sentence alert. m :)